Anytime I receive one of these requests, I immediately engage in an internal debate over whether to participate or not. These answer a set number of questions about yourself and the award posts can become time-consuming and take you away from blogging. Yet on the other hand, they are part of the WordPress community and develop fellowship amongst bloggers and bring new audiences of readers to blogs. Continue reading →

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This week in my inbox I received notice from Silver Threading that she had nominated me for A One Lovely Blog Award in her Virtual Love post.

I had accepted the One Lovely Blog Award ten days prior to her nomination. In her post Colleen exclaims “Today I have broken all the rules! There are NO questions.”

She suggests her nominees follow suit and just submit a paragraph about themselves and their blogs and encourage others to participate by nominating them.

Since, I don’t just like to break the rules but also to make new ones, instead of declining Colleen’s nomination, I chose to edit my original post And the nominees are … by adding Silver Threading to my nominating committee and re-blogging it. Hopefully, it will bring new readers to my original nominees, who should not consider this a new nomination.

The One Lovely Blog Award nominations are chosen by fellow bloggers for those newer or up-and-coming bloggers. The goal is to help give recognition and to also help the new blogger reach more viewers. It also recognizes blogs that are considered to be “lovely” by the fellow-blogger who chose them. This award acknowledges bloggers who share their story or thoughts in a beautiful manner to connect with their viewers and followers. In order to “accept” the award the nominated blogger must follow several guidelines.

I would like to thank the academy, my manager, the producers and editors of
from the sticks to the bricks and back again,
all the folks over at WordPress.com, without you none of this would be possible. I would also like to thank my friend Sam for putting me up to this blogging thing in the first place, my family and friends for all their support, and…

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On Thursday, I was simultaneously nominated for the prestigious Liebster Award by Chris at Chris Jurewicz’s blog and engaged in a discussion in The Commons for Blogging 101 about the pros and cons of blogging awards and whether to accept and nominate. I was fresh off the euphoria of being on the red carpet Continue reading →

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Today’s assignment: edit your title and tagline. Make your readers’ first impression a good one!

You set your blog’s address when you registered at WordPress.com, but your blog’s title — what readers see on your site when they visit — can be changed at any time. Today, let’s make sure you love yours.

Today’s assignment: edit your title and tagline.

If you’re already thrilled with your title or you want to do more, feel free to publish a post, too! Let readers know what inspired your title and tagline, or, If you need want writing inspiration, take a look at today’s prompt.

Last night when I saw today’s Say Your Name assignment arrive in my inbox, my first instinct was just to keep my blog’s current title – from the sticks to the bricks and back again. I’ve grown attached to it over the last year.

When my friend Sam challenged me to start my own blog, I surprised her when I said if you can come up with a title, I will do it. I explained that during two years of journalism classes what I hated the most was coming up with a title for articles. I actually loved the classes, the interviewing, and the writing. It was the succinctness the title required that challenged me – ironically most days I can say on twitter what I need to say in 140 characters or less.

Throughout the day Sam and I emailed titles and comments back and forth first just between the two of us and then I included two friends who worked in the marketing department of the firm I was working for at the time. When someone came up with an idea we would poll the others. By the end of the day, the four of us (Sam, Jennie, Linda and I) had settled on from the sticks to the bricks and back again.

Had I known, I would need a tagline that would have been part of my negotiations, come up with a title and tag line and I will start writing a blog. So for the last thirteen months, my tagline has been – A fine WordPress.com site.

For a moment I considered changing the title since I would be changing my tagline. It is not like I have developed a large following for my blog in the last year – not complaining just stating the obvious. I decided to mull it over and not rush into anything. Again, I’m just stating the obvious because rushing into a decision is just not part of my procrastinator’s mindset. Then a fellow blogger enrolled in Blogging 101 with me commented on my first day’s post – they liked my blog’s title and found it intriguing. That reaffirmed my first instinct to stick with the original title.

The title from the sticks to the bricks and back again is a reference to my life’s journey – growing up in the sticks, moving to the city and then back to the sticks. To be more accurate it probably should be back again and again.

So what should my tag line be?

cautionary tales of a work-in-progress

musings of a work-in-progress

amazing, amusing musings of a work-in-progress

amusings of a work-in-progress

amuzings of a work-in-progress (a play on amazing and amusing musings)

CAUTION: work-in-progress

For now, I am going with: musings of a work-in-progress. I may change my tagline every day to see what it feels like. At the end of the week, I will make a final decision. Share your thoughts on my tagline in the comments and help me decide.

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You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click “New Post,” and tell us why you’re here.

Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?

What topics do you think you’ll write about?

Who would you love to connect with via your blog?

If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

“Who I am and why I’m here”

I write because I am a writer. I love words, playing with them, putting them together randomly or not so randomly to express my thoughts. Writing is like breathing to me – essential to my being.

I am generally more comfortable with the written word than the spoken word. Although, I have at times been known to rise to the occasion. It was me who at a government affairs conference at Copley Place in Boston took to the microphone during a panel’s Q & A session to tell a rather high ranking member of Bush 41’s campaign staff that he needed to remember that when he got off the plane that night he was in Boston not Austin – if he would credit our senior liberal Senator with at least half of the good things he had accomplished in Congress, we would acknowledge his mistakes. For a second the room went quiet, before thunderous applause. Yeah me! Still, I am much more comfortable being the speech writer than the orator.

Also, in spite of being a wordsmith, I spun records as a deejay on my college radio station 3 hours a week for an entire year. I ended each show with “London Calling” by the Clash.

My blog, like me is a work-in-progress. And, thanks to my American Lit and Women’s Lit professor Eleanor Hope-McCarthy, I am perfectly comfortable with that. Ellie was chic, exuberant, exuded confidence, an awesomely pulled together woman, professor, activist, wife, mother, mentor, and role-model. One day in class totally off topic, my friend Nancy asked our professor how she came to be so perfectly put together, Ellie’s response was perfect that 25 years later, I remember (and have long adopted) her response: “I am a work-in-progress, we are all works-in-progress.”

Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?

Blogging publicly holds me accountable to an audience of readers instead of just to myself to write. If I state I am going to post according to a schedule, then I am accountable to my audience for that schedule. I can alter the schedule as needed; it is mine to adapt and change.

My hope is that by blogging publicly I will simply write more.

What topics do you think you’ll write about?

On my About page, I state: “My life is a case study in procrastination. I’m the favorite aunt, a Citizen Teacher, a kick-ass baker, and a political junkie who earns a living in commercial real estate. My musings run the gamut from social commentary, the Red Sox, Boston, New England, #CRE, the state of education in our country and anything else that flies across my radar.”

So don’t be surprised if one day I post about procrastination, the next day family and yet another day my commentary on current affairs. If I ever decide to blog about commercial real estate (#CRE), it will likely be in a different blog.

I view WordPress as Twitter for those of us who can’t always say it in 140 characters or less.

Who would you love to connect with via your blog?

I immediately think Nelson Mandela, Maya Angelou … so many people who first come to mind are no longer alive.

So who would I love to connect with via my blog?

Other writers.

Other procrastinators.

Other sports fans.

Other favorite aunts.

Others passionate about public education.

Eric Schwarz.

David Johns.

Other social commentators.

Javon Johnson.

Oprah Winfrey.

Any of the Clintons – Hillary, Bill or Chelsea.

Other political junkies.

Other foodies.

Ree Drummond.

Buddy Valastro.

Gordon Ramsey.

Innovators and visionaries.

Warren Buffet.

The next Steve Jobs.

If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

I will have written 5 out of every 7 days, whether or not I hit the publish button. I will have published 75 – 150 posts and reached 200 followers on my blog.